It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink discharge density setting method which allows easy setting of discharge densities. To achieve this object, there is provided an ink discharge density setting method including the line pattern formation step of forming a line pattern on a recording medium by discharging an ink from at least one ink discharging nozzle of said ink-jet head onto the recording medium at an ink discharge density M, the detection step of detecting a color density Dn of the line pattern, and the calculation step of, when a color density of a pixel which is required for the color filter is represented by D, calculating a discharge density Mn of an ink to be discharged onto the color filter substrate on the basis of the predetermined ink discharge density M, the color density Dn of the line pattern, and the required pixel color density D.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method of setting ink discharge density for coloring one line of a colored portion of a color filter, said one line being colored by a plurality of inks discharged from a plurality of ink discharge nozzles with a common ink discharge density, said method comprising the steps of: forming the colored portion extended along a scanning direction by relatively scanning the plurality of ink discharge nozzles and a substrate, and discharging inks on the substrate with a common first ink discharge density from each of the plurality of ink discharge nozzles, said one line of the colored portion being formed by the plurality of ink discharge nozzles; detecting a color density Dn of the colored portion after said forming step; and setting a common second ink discharge density by changing the common first ink discharge density into the common second ink discharge density, which is the same on each of the plurality of ink discharge nozzles, on the basis of the color density Dn detected in said detecting step so that a color density of the colored portion becomes a target color density D.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the setting step comprises setting and calculating the common second ink discharge density according to the common second ink discharge density x Kn+bn=D where Kn and bn are constants.
3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising a calibrating step of discharging inks from said plurality of ink discharge nozzles at different ink discharge densities to form a plurality of colored portions on a substrate at different ink discharge densities, obtaining a straight line representing a relationship between color densities of the plurality of colored portions and the ink discharge densities, and obtaining the constants Kn and bn from the straight line.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the constant Kn represents a slope of the straight line, and the constant bn represents a y segment of the straight line.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the forming step comprises forming the colored portion of said one line by performing a plurality of scanning operations while changing an ink discharging nozzle used for each scanning operation.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said color filter has multiple ones of said one line of the colored portions, and said setting step is performed at substantially the same time for each of the multiple lines of the colored portions.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said forming step comprises forming the colored portion of said one line by performing one scanning operation while discharging inks from said plurality of ink discharging nozzles.
8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the substrate is a glass substrate.
9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the glass substrate has a black matrix formed thereon.
10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detecting step comprises detecting the color density Dn of the colored portion by measuring an absorbance of the colored portion.
11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detecting step comprises detecting the color density Dn of the colored portion by measuring a transmittance of the colored portion.
12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detecting step comprises detecting the color density Dn of the colored portion by measuring a reflectance of the colored portion.
13. The method according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of ink discharge nozzles is comprised of an ink-jet head for discharging ink by using heat energy, said head having a heat energy generator for generating heat energy applied to the ink.
14. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of coloring the substrate by discharging ink from said plurality of ink discharge nozzles at the common second ink discharge density set in the setting step.
15. The method according to claim 14, wherein said plurality of ink discharge nozzles is comprised of an ink-jet head for discharging ink by using heat energy, said head having a heat energy generator for generating heat energy applied to the ink.
16. A display device integrally comprising: a color filter having at least one line of a colored portion and being manufactured by relatively scanning a head unit and a color filter substrate and discharging inks from plural discharge nozzles of said head unit onto the color filter substrate, said color filter further being manufactured by forming the colored portion extended along a scanning direction by relatively scanning the plurality of ink discharge nozzles and a substrate, and discharging inks on the substrate with a common first ink discharge density from each of the plurality of ink discharge nozzles, said one line of the colored portion being formed by the plurality of ink discharge nozzles, by detecting a color density Dn of the colored portion after said forming step, and by setting a common second ink discharge density by changing the common first ink discharge density into the common second ink discharge density, which is the same on each of the plurality of ink discharge nozzles, on the basis of the color density Dn detected in said detecting step so that a color density of the colored portion becomes a target color density D; and light amount changing means for changing a light amount.
17. An apparatus comprising: a display device integrally including a color filter having at least one line of a colored portion and being manufactured by relatively scanning a head unit and a color filter substrate and discharging inks from plural discharge nozzles of said head unit onto the color filter substrate, said color filter further being manufactured by forming the colored portion extended along a scanning direction by relatively scanning the plurality of ink discharge nozzles and a substrate, and discharging inks on the substrate with a common first ink discharge density from each of the plurality of ink discharge nozzles, said one line of the colored portion being formed by the plurality of ink discharge nozzles, by detecting a color density Dn of the colored portion after said forming step, and by setting a common second ink discharge density by changing the common first ink discharge density into the common second ink discharge density, which is the same on each of the plurality of ink discharge nozzles, on the basis of the color density Dn detected in said detecting step so that a color density of the colored portion becomes a target color density D, and light amount changing means for changing a light amount; and image signal supply means for supplying an image signal to said display device.
18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the common second ink discharge density is set to larger than the common first ink discharge density when the color density Dn is smaller than the color density D, and the common second ink discharge density is set to smaller than the common first ink discharge density when the color density Dn is larger than the color density D.
19. The method according to claim 1, wherein a position at which a plurality of inks discharged with the common first ink discharge density are applied is different along the scanning direction for each of the plurality of ink discharge nozzles.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
March 16, 1998
September 18, 2001
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